E-commerce start-up Knowde launches

San Francisco-based Knowde is launching with the goal of transforming what it sees as the antiquated way the chemical industry does business. The company calls itself the “world’s first online marketing platform dedicated to chemicals and ingredients.” It has seed funding from Bee Partners, other investors, and angel investor Rick Borenstein. “The chemical industry has surprisingly few digital capabilities and is ripe for change,” Bee Partners partner Garrett Goldberg says. One competing platform is Elemica. Around since 2000, it boasts 10,000 trading partners and 1 million transactions daily.